Autumn In The Smoky’s

Welcome to Jeff Sagar Photography, thanks for visiting. This is my very first post, and I’m excited to bring you a special image taken during a mid-October 2011 vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Asheville, NC. and the Blue Ridge Parkway were also part of the trip. Our timing was perfect as the fall color was at its peak!

As predicted by the weather service, the day (October 19, 2011) started out with a relatively hard rain so after several good days of photography and sightseeing in and around Great Smoky Mountains National Park my wife and I decided to hit the outlet malls. After lunch the rain had lightened considerably so we decided to go back to the park and tour Cades Cove since we could drive the 11 mile loop and stop where we wanted to if it wasn’t raining too hard. We also thought it wouldn’t be too crowded since it was raining….WRONG! The loop road through the cove was bumper to bumper with traffic and very, very slow moving. By the time we made it to the Cades Cove Visitor’s Center and Cable Historic Area, which is only 5 miles from the start of the loop road it was late afternoon and definitely time to get out of the car and stretch our legs. Fortunately the rain was just a light drizzle so we headed to the historic area to check out the mill and other pioneer buildings. I wanted to photograph the mill and thought that the light rain and overcast late afternoon light would be the perfect conditions to photograph the mill. As all good photographers know, you have to be prepared to shoot in “any” type of weather and in this particular instance, I wasn’t. I left my hooded rain jacket in the car so I was getting a little damp. My wife however, was prepared so I give her all the credit for making the above image possible. She held an umbrella over me, the camera and tripod while I composed this shot. I used a polarizing filter to reduce reflections and saturate the colors.

The “Cable Mill” was originally built in 1867 by John P. Cable. The mill processed logs, wheat and corn, and was one of the most successful mills in the cove. The mill continued to function in some fashion until the 1920’s and was actually still informally in use when Great Smoky Mountain’s National Park was formed in September, 1940. Renovations about the middle of the last century and the replacement of the mill wheel several years ago have ensured that the mill will continue to operate much as it did almost 150 years ago. You can even buy a bag of cornmeal at the mill when you visit.

To see more of my images from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, please click here. If you have any questions, please click here to email me.